A    001  420  054    7 


Jtt 


Wo  (0str 


Karl 


iftri-1919 


1910 


_ 

\4 

^      << 


KARL  UEBKNECHT 


"  'And  for  all  that,  mind  you,  there  is  one 
figure  that  has  risen  above  the  war  and  will 
blaze  with  the  beauty  and  strength  of  his 
courage — ' 

"I  listened,  leaning  on  a  stick  towards 
him,  drinking  in  the  voice  that  came  in  the 
.  twilight  silence  from  the  lips  that  so  rarely 
spoke.  He  cried  with  a  clear  voice — 
'  I/iebknecht ! '  You  ask  me  the  bravest 
man  in  all  Europe?'  says  the  soldier,  'I 
will  tell  yon — Karl  Liebknecht ! '  ' ' — From 
Le  Feu  {Under  Fire),  by  Henri  Barbuue. 


Compiled  by  Max.  Bedacht 

Published  by  Socialist  Party  of  San  Francisco 

1255  Market  Street 


42288S 


To  Karl  Liebknecht  and 
Rosa  Luxemburg 

By  MAXIMILIAN  COHEN 


They  slew  you  in  their  beastly  rage, 
Because  you  dared  the  struggle  wage 
With  tyrants  and  with  traitors  too — 
The  traitors  feared  and  so  they  sleiv. 
Deluded  knaves!   Your  lifeless  tongues 
More  potent  now  in  martyr  songs 
Will  trumpet  forth  the  truth  until      , 
The  very  earth  will  rock  and  thrill; 
And  thrones  and  states  will  crash  and  fall— 
And  labor  triumphs  over  all. 
*  *  * 

So  comrades,  sleep— your  work  is  done; 
Sleep  on!  The  battle  i»ill  be  won. 

— From  the  Revolutionary  Age,  Feb.  1,1919 


46 


3n 


"Militarism  is  the  curse  of  the  peoples!  The 
hunger-whip,  the  menacing  sound  of  which 
is  driving  the  wage-workers  into  the  profit- 
grinding  mills  of  capitalism,  is  a  symbol  of 
liberty  compared  with  the  slavery  into  which 
the  bloody-iron  rule  of  militarism  is  forcing 
them." 

KARL,  LIEBKNECHT. 


Karl  Liebknecht  is  no  more! 

The  fearless  fighter,  the  dauntless 
leader,  the  true  revolutionist,  is  gone 
from  us — gone  forever — murdered,  bru- 
tally murdered. 

The  profound  grief  for  his  loss  brings 
tears  to  the  eyes  of  millions  of  poor 
wage  slaves  the  world  over,  and  deadens 
the  joy  felt  in  every  corner  of  the  earth 
at  the  destruction  of  the  imperial  mili- 
taristic government  of  Germany. 

Karl  Liebknecht  was  born  on  the  13th 
day  of  August,  1871.  His  father,  Wil- 
helm  Liebknecht,  the  "soldier  of  the 
revolution,"  was  the  friend  of  Marx  and 
the  theoretical  pilot  of  the  young  Social- 
Democratic  party  of  Germany.  His 
mother,  Natalie,  was  the  unselfish  help- 
mate of  his  father  in  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  latter's  political  career,  in  and  out 
of  jail.  She  was  ever  untiring  in  her 


care  and  devotion  to  the  young  Karl, 
who,  at  his  birth,  was  given  the  formid- 
able name  of  Karl  Paul  August  Fred- 
erick. 

The  very  air  young  Liebknecht 
breathed  was  saturated  with  the  ideas 
of  Socialism.  The  belief  that  radical- 
ism could  be  suppressed  by  law  had  en- 
tered the  head  of  Germany's  leading 
statesman,  Bismarck,  and  found  its  ex- 
pression in  the  anti-Socialist  laws  from 
October,  1878,  to  October,  1890.  Dur- 
ing almost  all  of  that  time  Socialist  life 
in  Germany  centered  in  the  homes  of 
Wilhelm  Liebknecht  and  August  Bebel. 
The  boy,  Karl,  was  at  home  in  both  of 
their  houses.  Though  victims  them- 
selves, Bebel  and  the  elder  Liebknecht 
were  active  day  and  night  to  relieve  the 
suffering  of  countless  victims  of  the  in- 
famy of  the  capitalist  class  in  Germany. 

The  atmosphere  created  by  these  ex- 
ertions was  not  very  favorable  to  the 
development  of  a  patriotic  spirit  in  the 
heart  of  Karl.  The  result  was  that  Karl 
and  his  brothers  escaped  the  teachings 
of  jingoism,  and  were  thus  able  to  base 
their  Socialist  principles  upon  the  rock 
foundation  of  genuine  fidelity  to  the 
working  class  alone. 

Karl  always  realized  this  advantage. 
Ke  knew  that  the  patriotic  ardor  in- 
jected into  the  minds  of  the  youth,  was 
liable  to  show  its  effects  in  times  of 
crisis  when  the  misleaders  of  the  na- 


tion,  by  deliberately  throwing  the  nation 
into  a  fit  of  patriotic  frenzy,  could  blind 
the  people  to  their  real  class  interests. 

"Get  the  youth,  and  yours  will  be  the 
world !"  That  was  the  propaganda  for- 
mula of  Karl  Liebknecht's  whole  career. 
The  quintessence  of  his  book,  "Militar- 
ism and  Anti-Militarism,"  is:  get  the 
youth  and  you  control  the  army.  He 
called  upon  the  parents  to  counteract 
the  poison  of  official  education  by  ra- 
tional Socialist  education  in  the  home. 
He  demanded  that  the  party  organize 
the  young  people  and  complete  this 
parental  education.  He  was  the  recog- 
nized leader  of  the  Young  People's  So- 
cialist International. 

Karl  studied  law.  He  graduated  as 
a  Doctor  of  Jurisprudence.  He  did  not, 
however,  take  his  profession  as  a  mere 
means  of  livelihood.  For  him  it  was  a 
way  of  helping  the  down-trodden,  a 
method  of  obtaining  justice  for  the 
poor. 

Elected  to  the  Prussian  Diet  as  a 
member  from  Berlin,  he  mercilessly 
criticized  the  administration  of  justice. 
He  took  the  Minister  of  Justice  to  task 
for  the  wrongs  committed.  He  was 
hated  fiercely  by  the  bourgeois  mem- 
bers. They  left  the  assembly  whenever 
Karl  spoke.  He  was  their  conscience 
from  which  they  tried  in  vain  to  escape. 
Karl  never  spoke  to  please.  To  speak 

5 


the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth 
as  he  saw  it — that  was  his  mission. 
Every  one  of  his  speeches  was  the  axe 
cutting  at  the  roots  of  the  tree  of  capi- 
talism. With  a  courage  undaunted  by 
the  most  formidable  opposition,  he  de- 
manded restitution  for  wrongs  commit- 
ted and  threw  defiance  into  the  face  of 
the  enemy.  Regardless  of  danger,  he 
considered  this  to  be  his  duty.  "My 
honor  is  mine,"  he  called  out  to  the 
prosecutor  in  his  trial  for  writing  the 
book  "Militarism  and.  Anti-Militarism" ; 
"My  honor  is  mine  and  you  cannot  rob 
me  of  it.  Whatever  you  think  of  it, 
Herr  Oberreichanswalt,  not  for  the 
world  would  I  change  places  with  you  in 
this  hall!"  Eighteen  months  imprison- 
ment in  the  fortress  of  Glatz  was  the 
answer  of  the  court. 

In  1911  the  district  of  Potsdam-Ost- 
Havelland  elected  Liebknecht  to  the 
Reichstag.  Tirelessly  he  labored  there 
in  the  interests  of  the  workers,  criticis- 
ing, accusing,  revealing  the  manipula- 
tions of  the  War  Trust. 

After  the  historical  4th  of  August, 
1914,  he  declared  war  against  the  gov- 
ernment and  its  "Socialist"  supporters. 
On  and  after  December  2,  1914,  he  voted 
against  the  war  credits.  He  hurled  the 
most  embarrassing  questions  at  the 
government,  the  answer  to  which  the 
government  and  the  Majority  Socialists 


yet  owe  the  people  of  Germany.  Lieb- 
knecht  soon  gave  up  his  hope  of  accom- 
plishing anything  by  appealing  to  the 
membership  of  the  Reichstag.  He  hence- 
forth appealed  to  the  masses,  to  the 
people  themselves.  He  spoke  and  also 
published  pamphlets.  Many  of  the  lat- 
ter were  written  in  the  form  of  letters, 
some  by  Liebknecht,  others  by  Rosa 
Luxemburg,  and  still  others  by  Franz 
Mehring.  These  were  signed  with  the 
name  of  the  ancient  leader  of  a  Roman 
slave  revolt,  Spartacus ;  hence  the  name 
given  the  Liebknecht  group,  "Sparta- 
cus." The  danger  of  this  activity  was 
quickly  recognized  by  the  government. 
Luxemburg,  the  woman,  and  Mehring, 
the  aged  historian,  were  jailed  without 
a  charge;  while  Liebknecht  was  sen- 
tenced to  four  years  and  one  month  in 
the  penitentiary,  and  was  stripped  of 
his  parliamentary  mandate. 

His  release  from  prison  in  October, 
1918,  was  the  first  unmistakable  sign 
of  the  breakdown  of  the  imperial  mili- 
taristic regime,  the  first  proof  of  the 
effectiveness  of  Bolshevik  propaganda 
in  Germany. 

"The  hour  of  the  people  is  at  hand," 
that  was  Liebknecht's  greeting  to  the 
workers  of  Berlin  upon  his  release  from 
prison. 

Yes,  the  hour  of  the  people  was  at 
hand,  and  Liebknecht  was  the  man  of 


the  people — the  man  of  the  hour.  A 
dictatorship  of  the  working-class  for  the 
transition  period  was  his  demand. 

He  was  murdered  in  January  of  this 
year,  1919. 

But  his  spirit  still  lives.  His  voice 
still  rings  in  the  ears  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  German  workers.  His 
words  are  impressed  upon  the  memory 
of  millions  all  over  the  globe.  His  ac- 
tivity for  the  cause  of  the  workers  will 
not  be  forgotten.  His  death  but 
strengthens  the  determination  of  all  So- 
cialists to  redouble  their  efforts  in 
bringing  about,  within  their  lifetime, 
Freedom,  Industrial  Democracy,  and 
Justice  for  all  and  forever. 


Liebknecht's  Position  in  the  German 
Socialist  Movement 

To  understand  Liebknecht's  position 
in  the  Socialist  movement  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  some  fundamental  facts 
about  the  political  situation  in  Germany 
before  the  war. 

Germany  was  then  a  constitutional 
monarchy.  The  descendants  of  the  feu- 
dal nobility  were  entrenched  in  all  the 
important  official  positions  of  the  em- 
pire. They  constituted  the  bureaucratic 
machinery  of  the  country,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  counterbalance  of  the 
economic  power  of  the  Industrial  and 
Banking  lords.  The  aim  of  this  bureau- 

8 


cracy  was  a  rule  of  absolutism  by  the 
great  landlords  through  a  monarch  with 
unlimited  power.  This  would  have 
meant  a  Capitalist  government  con- 
trolled by  agrarian  Capitalists.  Indus- 
trial and  Banking  Capitalists,  on  the 
other  hand,  wanted  more  "liberty"; 
liberty  for  their  class.  Their  direct  rep- 
resentatives in  the  legislative  bodies 
stood  consequently  for  such  an  exten- 
sion of  the  constitutional  guarantees  as 
would  make  them  the  absolute  rulers. 
The  intellectual  representatives  of  the 
Capitalist  class  of  the  empire  formu- 
lated these  demands  into  reforms  which 
they  considered  essential. 

The  direct  representatives  of  the  In- 
dustrial and  Banking  Capitalists  were, 
however,  more  interested  in  immediate 
profits  than  in  ultimate  political 
changes.  Their  action  was  not  directed 
so  much  by  their  political  program  as 
by  their  immediate  economic  interests. 
Instead  of  insisting  upon  political  de- 
mands they  obtained  their  objects  by 
compromises — compromises  that  gen- 
erally benefited  them  and  the  agrarians. 
These  compromises  resulted  in  no  eco- 
nomic losses  to  either  of  these  two 
parties,  as  the  bill  was  always  footed 
by  the  working-class.  Thus  the  many 
intellectuals  who  honestly  stood  for 
political  reform  continually  found  them- 
selves deserted  by  the  very  class  for 


which  they  were  demanding  these  re- 
forms. 

They  were  forced  then  to  turn  for 
support  to  the  Left.  There  they  found 
the  Socialists,  who  had  nothing  to  gain 
by  compromising.  The  Socialists  were 
the  only  political  unit  that  really  op- 
posed the  government.  So  the  honest 
Republicans  joined  the  Soeial-Demo- 
eratic  Party.  By  using  Socialist  termi- 
nology in  their  criticisms  they  per- 
suaded the  masses  that  they  were  really 
Socialists.  They  even  believed  it  them- 
selves. Socialist  theories  afforded  them 
excellent  weapons  for  their  criticisms 
while  they  gave  very  little  thought 
to  the  practical  realization  of  these 
theories. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  Socialism  was  re- 
garded as  unimportant  and  all  activity 
concentrated  upon  the  immediate  move- 
ment. But  the  less  important  the 
ultimate  aim  was  considered  to  be,  the 
less  it  influenced  the  tactics  of  the  move- 
ment. Opportunism  and  political  trad- 
ing prevailed  within  the  Party.  The 
most  important  consequence  of  this 
state  of  affairs  was  that  the  Revolu- 
tionary spirit  of  the  masses,  instead  of 
being  awakened,  was  completely  para- 
lyzed. The  masses  trusted  to  the  peace- 
ful development  of  Capitalism  into  So- 
cialism by  the  elementary  force  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  latter. 

10 


Such  was  the  Social-Democratic  Party 
of  Germany.  Right  wing,  radical  bour- 
geois; Center,  Socialists  influenced  by 
the  intellectual  development  of  the  prop- 
aganda and  teachings  of  the  Party  dur- 
ing the  previous  thirty  years;  Left 
wing,  the  International  Socialist  group, 
to  which  Liebknecht  and  Rosa  Luxem- 
burg belonged. 

There  were  but  very  few  really  revo- 
lutionary International  Socialists  in  the 
movement.  The  Right  wing  of  the  Party 
could  always  see  the  points  of  common 
interest  between  them  and  the  Liberal 
Parties  and  easily  forget  the  points  of 
difference.  But  in  considering  the  Lieb- 
knecht wing,  they  could  only  see  the 
points  of  difference  and  forget  about 
the  points  of  common  interest.  A  polit- 
ical bloc  from  Bebel,  the  leader  of  the 
Socialists,  to  Basserman,  the  leader  of 
the  Liberal  Party,  was  considered  pos- 
sible ;  was  even  advocated  in  fact.  But  a 
solid  bloc  within  the  Social-Democratic 
Party  itself  from  Kolb,  the  Extreme 
Right  Wing,  to  Liebknecht,  the  Extreme 
Left  Wing,  would  always  have  been 
spurned  by  the  Right  Wing.  In  reality, 
Dr.  Landsberg,  Dr.  David,  Dr.  Heine, 
Dr.  Sudekum,  Mr.  Kolb  and  the  others 
in  their  group  were  never,  in  fact,  So- 
cialists. Liebknecht,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  never  anything  else  but  a  Socialist. 
The  Center,  like  a  pendulum,  swung 

11 


from  one  extreme  to  the  other;  in 
points  of  theory  to  the  Left  toward 
Liebknecht,  in  points  of  tactics  to  the 
Right  toward  Dr.  David  and  Kolb. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem  it  was  this  very 
inconsistency  of  the  Center  that  kept 
the  incoherent  mass  of  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic Party  in  a  state  of  apparent 
unity. 

Karl  Liebknecht  was  always  an  un- 
compromising Socialist.  His  Socialism 
was  chemically  pure.  The  cause  of  the 
working-class  was  his  cause — no  other 
sympathies  ever  influenced  his  actions. 
He  gave  his  life  for  it,  the  greatest 
sacrifice  a  man  can  make  for  his  con- 
victions. 

As  long  as  the  red  blood  circulates 
through  the  hearts  of  Socialists  the 
world  over,  Karl  Liebknecht  will  not  be 
forgotten. 

ROSA  LUXEMBURG 

The  author  wishes  to  explain  that  it 
has  been  impossible  to  secure  sufficient 
reliable  information  about  Rosa  Luxem- 
burg to  include  herein  a  sketch  of  her 
Socialist  activities,  beyond  the  common 
knowledge  of  the  leading  part  she  has 
taken  with  Karl  Liebknecht  and  the 
other  International  Socialists  of  Ger- 
many in  their  revolutionary  activities 
during  recent  years. 

12 

UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 
THE  UNIV^  ^TXY  LIBRARY 


of  CALIFORNIA 


